The Five Colleges Of Strixhaven in MTG, Explained

Secrets of Strixhaven sees the return of the five magic colleges to Magic: The Gathering, meaning there is no better time to check back in with the schools and remind ourselves exactly what they stand for and how they may play in the upcoming set.

As a precursor, each of the five magical colleges has a dual-color theme, and this impacts how each college plays. While there will be ways to incorporate standalone cards into the current MTG Standard and Commander meta, if you hope to make the most of the synergies within the set, you’re best off building a deck predominantly using cards from the upcoming launch.

Lorehold

The white and red college of Archaeomancy founded by the founder dragon Velomachus Lorehold, Lorehold is the university’s history department. Archaeomancy is its main aim – using magic to uncover artifacts from the past, or channel long-dead spirits to either provide first-hand accounts of times long gone, or serve as their college’s mascots.

Like all of Strixhaven’s colleges, Lorehold is represented by two polarizing ideologies, and students are expected over their years of study to find a balance between the two. At the heart of Lorehold is the debate of Order or Chaos: is history a reasoned and deliberate pattern of events marching towards an ordered future, or is it a tangled mess of the passions and whims of individual people that will only become more and more chaotic over time? Can you use the past to predict the future, or is the past just another part of an unpredictable story leading into even more inexplicable times?

These debates are represented by Lorehold’s two Deans: the human Augusta is the Dean of Order, while the orc Plargg is the Dean of Chaos. Students may work with Augusta on analyzing the past through documents to paint a picture of history, or they may go on dangerous, tomb-raiding field trips with Plargg.

Though Lorehold is home to archaeologists, artificers, linguists, and art historians (where it sees much overlap with the students of Prismari), a large part of Lorehold’s identity is its focus on military prowess. While Augusta believes societies and systemic structures can improve over time, Plargg feels it’s the strength and drive of individuals that build the future. Though both disagree on their applications, both acknowledge the historical importance of armies and combat, and so students are expected to have at least some level of martial understanding, with many using spirits, golems, and artifacts from the past as part of their combat.

Academics at Lorehold may specialize in a variety of different areas, such as becoming an Archaeoscribe who records historical events for posterity, a Dustspeaker who can communicate with spirits to learn of the past, or a Ruin Shaman who uses their magic to dive deeper into tombs and caves in displays of practical archaeology.

Lorehold In Secrets Of Strixhaven

So far, we know that the Lorehold Spirit Commander pre-con is coming in Secrets of Strixhaven, and it is a white and red deck built around generating token spirits and buffing them to do big damage to your opponents.

The Commander is Quintorius, History Chaser, a legendary planeswalker. He allows for a 3/2 spirit token to be created any time a card leaves your graveyard. This can be if it is placed back in your hand, straight onto the battlefield, or exiled.

Prismari

Prismari is the College of Elemental Arts, and is where all of Strixhaven’s most creative and artistic students work, following in the footsteps of the explosive founder dragon Galazeth Prismari. Centered in blue and red Magic, the central conflict of Prismari is in its Deans’ individual approaches to art.

Ulvilda, Dean of Perfection, believes that art is the culmination of careful study, deliberate strokes, and attention to detail. She values technical skill and delicate work, and is famed for her ability to guide a student’s entire artistic career with a single, well-constructed piece of critique. Students who follow her tend to create visual masterpieces of ornate sculpture, painting, pottery, and other visual mediums, though some more subtle performances are welcome.

On the other hand, Nassari, Dean of Expression, believes art is about channeling raw emotion. Big displays of magical power, bombastic bursts of color and light in groundbreaking performances, Nassari represents the red magic to Ulvilda’s blue. She enjoys performance art, dance, and other, fleeting displays of creativity – the duration of the piece presented to her doesn’t matter, as long as it’s straight from the heart.

No matter what kind of art a Prismari student produces, their magic concerns itself with elemental forces. Water, mist, fire, ice, electricity, and other natural forces are created and redirected, ready to be woven into a painting or burst into the sky as part of a dance. Even music itself is encouraged in Prismari, with the conductor Zaffai using his orchestra to create vast storms of thunder and lightning. Elementals – living embodiments of the forces Prismari manipulates – are their mascot.

Students at Prismari often specialize in areas such as Opusmancy – creating massive works of art – reshaping the earth and lava to make explosive displays through Geomancy, or manipulating the concept of beauty itself through Aesthemancy.

Prismari In Secrets Of Strixhaven

The Prismari Artistry Commander pre-con is coming in Secrets of Strixhaven and will be a red and blue spellslinger deck led by Rootha, Mastering the Moment.

This deck encourages the use of spells in your first main phase, as the Rootha will create flying blue and red elemental tokens with haste when your combat phase begins, where their power and toughness are equal to the number of spells you’ve cast prior to combat.

Quandrix

At Quandrix, students use magic to study the physical laws that hold together the universe. Green and blue magic are used to explore mathematics, physics, geometry, and the origin and nature of mana itself. Tanazir Quandrix, a gargantuan dragon with large, geometric wings, founded the college.

Thanks to its focus on studying and manipulating reality itself, Quandrix is simultaneously the most fantastical and also the most scientifically centered of the five colleges. Alongside studying things like complex mathematics and physics, scholars can become experts in Abstraction (using magic to bend space), manipulating size as a Scale Druid or Augmentor, or even creating fractal facsimiles of life (Quandrix’s mascots) as a Vivifier.

Quandrix’s central debate is one of mathematics’ oldest: is math a real thing inherent to the world that we discover, or is it a language made up by people to understand the world around them? At Strixhaven, this is called the debate of Substance and Theory, and the two deans of Quandrix often disagree on the purpose of their studies.

Kianne, the Dean of Substance, uses magic and mathematics to research mana and the many ways it manifests in Arcavios. Her teaching is very practical and is based on how mathematics and the magical manipulation of it can be used to improve daily life – manipulating spaces, changing the size of objects, and warping space are common practical applications of a Quandrix education.

The Dean of Theory is Imbraham, an Owlin mage who is often lost in his own calculations. To him, Quandrix is about posing questions just as much as it is answering them, and his magic can be used to create fractals and illusions from nothing. He’s known for offering bounties to his students for solutions to his unsolved equations, though his obsessive search for answers means he is very rarely seen outside of his own corner of the Quandrix Campus.

Quandrix In Secrets Of Strixhaven

The Quandrix Unlimited deck is arriving in Secrets of Strixhaven, and it is centered around +1/+1 counters and spells with an X-factor, numerically speaking.

This deck is led by Zimone, Infinite Analyst, whose ability is a bit of a mouthful. The first spell you cast each turn with X in its casting cost will cost one-less mana to cast for every +1/+1 counter on Zimone, and every time you cast your first X spell each turn, you may put two +1/+1 counters on Zimone.

Witherbloom

If Quandrix is dedicated to physics, Witherbloom is dedicated to biology. With its campus found deep in the swamps of Arcavios, Witherbloom concerns itself with the essence of life as it ebbs and flows through creatures and ecosystems. Nature is such a key part of Witherbloom that its mascots are the only naturally occurring ones in Strixhaven, with Pests found throughout the swamps and bayous of the Witherbloom campus.

When combined with magic, Witherbloom’s natural science education tends to focus on using the natural world to craft potions that can heal (Leafbinders and Boon Witches) or maim (Banelocks), or use the wildlife of the swamp as a Boughcaller or Pestcatcher. Some even use the swamp itself as a source of power, with Earthcrouchers using the ground beneath their feet to empower their spells.

Thanks to the Planeswalker Lilliana Vess, a recent introduction to the Witherbloom curriculum has been Necromancy, with Dreadbones being able to create undead servants by weaving their decaying tissues with magic.

Witherbloom’s two deans are possibly the most antagonistic towards each other out of all colleges, as their debate is focused on the purpose of life and death. Lisette, Dean of the Root, argues that life is sacred, and life is what keeps nature in balance. Things live to create, nourish, and adapt to make the world a more varied and interesting place, and the Dean of the Root Lisette is a master healer whose mission is to preserve the respect and dignity of life at all costs.

On the other hand, the vampire Valentin is the Dean of the Vein, and argues that it’s actually death and decay that fuel nature. Things only live so they can gather nutrients and matter, ready to redistribute them into the ecosystem on their death. Vampires are common in the Decay school of Witherbloom, as their entire existence is about draining life energy for personal gain – it isn’t that Valentin and his kind are murderous and bloodthirsty, like the vampires of Innistrad or Zendikar. It’s that they see life as a resource to be consumed, and it has no inherent value beyond how it can be used.

Witherbloom’s philosophy is excellently represented by its Founder Dragon, Beledros Witherbloom. Though she is a large, undead-looking dragon glowing with luminescent green energy, she is known for her nest in the Witherbloom swamps, where she studies her vast collection of writing in harmony with the bayou around her.

Witherbloom In Secrets Of Strixhaven

The Witherbloom Pestilence Commander pre-con deck is launching during Secrets of Strixhaven and is a black and green deck that focuses on sacrifice and life gain.

Dina, Essence Brewer leads the deck and allows for a card to be drawn upon sacrificing a creature, although this only activates once per turn. You can also tap Dina and pay two mana to sacrifice a creature; you then gain X life and put X +1/+1 counters on a target creature, where X is the power value of the sacrificed creature.

Silverquill

Highly political and competitive, the Silverquill College of Eloquence uses the magic of words, metaphor, and oration to simultaneously dominate opponents and inspire allies. Their mascot is the Inklings, conjured blobs of living ink who represent the cutting, written words of its students.

Literature, poetry, debate, and drama are primary focuses of Silverquill education, with many students using their words as Bantermages to destroy an opponent’s confidence, or as a Vainglory or Warsinger to bolster their friends. Alternatively, Silverquill students often use ink-based magic to become Inkcasters or Duskmages, or light-based magic as Lumimancers.

Like everything else in Silverquill, even its central debate is shrouded in metaphor. Dubbed ‘Radiance’ and ‘Shadow’, the argument isn’t so much over the nature of words and magic as it is the application of it. Shaile, Dean of Radiance argues that rhetoric should be used to uplift. Her magic is all about providing confidence and support to those around her, while also producing blinding light. She believes all people are inherently good; it just takes the right words to bring that out of some people.

Her belief is heavily contrasted by the Dean of Shadow, Embrose Lu. Father of Silverquill student Killian Lu, Embrose believes that people are only out for themselves. His words and magic are both inky black, and he can demolish an opponent with a single, well-placed barb. He’ll ruthlessly criticize any student whom he deems not good enough, with many dropping out of Strixhaven completely under his tutelage. Despite his relentlessness, there is a deep respect between Shaile and Embrose, highlighting their shared goal of making the students of Silverquill the best version of themselves.

Based in white and black magic, though it is seen by some as a college of bullies out for themselves, there is also a high level of camaraderie and charity in much of its student base – for instance, the star pupil Grayson Wildemere is outwardly seen as a privileged, politicking gossip columnist for the Strixhaven Star student newspaper, but also uses his position to expose and punish bullies, and uses his vast wealth to provide textbooks for less affluent students.

Little is known about the college’s founding dragon, Shadrix Silverquill, other than that he is a large, imposing figure whose wings always drip with a similar inky, black substance to the one his students use for their magic.

Silverquill In Secrets Of Strixhaven

Silverquill Influence is a black and white Commander pre-con deck arriving in Secrets of Strixhaven with Killian, Decisive Mentor leading the way, and it uses mechanics such as goad to force players into attacking anyone other than you, if possible.

This deck will utilize auras and enchantments as its main source of power, and mechanics like goad have players targeting anyone other than you, when possible, so that you can be left alone to peacefully build your way to victory.